In a break from the unrelenting awfulness of the news at the moment, I give you a picture I hope will make it into my current boom: kidneys and hard-boiled eggs in aspic. Even I would balk at this.

Went on a culinary history retreat. Write about it. (Paywalled: shorter print version is out tomoz) www.ft.com/content/2f6a...

Would you eat a marmot?

In the Swiss Alps, the cuddly rodents once formed a regular part of the diet — as Annie Gray learns on a new culinary history retreat

ft.com

When the going gets (too) hot, the over heated moaning food historian makes Victorian ices....

Is the Law Really on Our Side? A young people’s Q&A with the first female President of the UK Supreme Court, the Right Honourable the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE. 🗓️ Mon 6 Jul 🕑️ 10am-12pm 📍 Gladstone's Library 📖 For ages 16-24 🎟️ Free tickets here: buff.ly/Fw4uXaZ

Out today! 🥳 The King's Dinner: Family, nation, and identity on the British table, 1760-1820: uclpress.co.uk/book/the-kin.... My book with Rachel Rich, @sarahfoxhistory.bsky.social & @adamcrymble.bsky.social. It is #openaccess so come take a look! cc @uclpress.bsky.social #skystorians #foodhistory

The King’s Dinner

The King’s Dinner is about what it meant to be British at the end of the eighteenth century. Drawing on the vast kitchen ledgers of two royal households made newly available to research through digiti...

uclpress.co.uk

Ten years on from the Brexit vote: a new @yougov.co.uk poll finds that 77% of the British public have trust in the expertise of historians bit.ly/49I9NV7 It's heartening to hear that so many value, and certainly haven't had enough of, the historian as expert. #Skystorians 1/4

There’s a new book out from Professor Kate Williams for all you history lovers who want to know more about powerful women in history — it’s called Regina, and it looks like this!

The Story of the Sandwich. Spolier Alert: Once again, the Earl of Sandwich did NOT create the first sandwich. Featuring @dranniegray.bsky.social www.bbc.com/audio/play/w... #foodhistory #sandwich

BBC Audio | The Food Chain | The story of the sandwich

An easy meal with global appeal, endless possibilities and hidden meaning.

bbc.com

I'm very much in agreement with this. 400 years ago there wasnt much of a high street, and fixed shops tended to be for the wealthy. Markets were where most of us shopped until well into the C20th. Where they still exist, they are still big draws, as well as incubator spaces for retailers.

Kate Watson@loreandordure.com · 3mo ago

My theory of dying town centres is we need to bring back regular weekly / twice weekly markets, with subsidised stalls for local micro businesses, give them a chance to shake down their offer, very likely they will then move into empty retail units (also with initial business rates discount etc).

A thread on problems in how archaeological research is communicated to the public 👇😵‍💫

Alice Roberts@profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 4mo ago

This is now what passes for “science” from the BBC. Hackneyed cliches, faux mystery, factually incorrect statements. 1. Archaeologists are, once again, “baffled” www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I had some thoughts on Bridgerton (I have not watched the latest series, btw, because I wanted to kill Daphne so hard in the first one). youtu.be/dsmIlgb1fPQ?...

Inside Bridgerton's Kitchens with Food Historian Annie Gray | Shondaland

YouTube video by Shondaland

youtu.be

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m... This was a lot of fun and my GOD I love radio.

BBC Radio 4 - Pick of the Week, Dr Annie Gray

Dr Annie Gray presents a weekly selection of the best bits of audio across the BBC.

bbc.co.uk

Hoorah! Hoorah! This is exactly what I hoped readers would say. ❤️

Erin Green 🖖@erin-o-green.bsky.social · 5mo ago

But I also want to do a quick rave for @dranniegray.bsky.social’s delightful history The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker. Everything you never knew you’d want to know about UK high streets. Equal measure fascinating and funny. Absolutely a great read.

🤣🤣🤣 I have STRONG feelings.

🦇🤘 Miscreant Jennie 🔶️🏳️‍🌈@rigg.lgbt · 5mo ago

Listening to the TKC from Bristol and @dranniegray.bsky.social's MAGNIFICENT rant about flavoured hot cross buns is so passionate and righteous it almost - almost - has @jayrayner1.bsky.social speechless. Well said, ma'am! (and I might have to have hot cross bun bacon sandwich for lunch)

🙌 (though apropos of a discussing on a historians whatsapp group I am in, I am a bit scared to emoji now)

Erin Green 🖖@erin-o-green.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Just finished The Bookshop, The Draper, The Candlestick Maker by @dranniegray.bsky.social. It’s a delightfully entertaining look at all things High Street.

It is a lovely sunny day here FINALLY and for more joy, mine and Kathy Hipperson's collaboration with The Food Museum is going great guns. Latest video here youtu.be/_snt5Th3a_M?... (I am having a lot of fun with these).

The Food Museum Presents... Bread Making

YouTube video by Food Museum

youtu.be

Today in Dorothy Hartley made it up world.... Clifton puffs (not made up per se, but lifted from Cassell's and then because she included them everyone following her decided they were canonical and then someone invented a story to justify this). Next up: Mrs Clements' Durham Mustard.

This is a brilliant piece of writing (and both jaw-dropping and darkly - at times - funny in equal measure ).

Shannon McSheffrey@medievalmcsheff.bsky.social · 5mo ago

“Bringing down the royal family may be the least terrible consequence of everything Andrew has done. When a lazy aristocrat from a dying dynasty uses a helicopter to travel seventeen miles, the edifice shakes. But when that same man rapes a 17-year-old and calls her a liar, it is the end of days.“

We made one for a TV thing once. Due to a variety of factors, let us not dwell, eh, it got gangrene.

Dr Neil Buttery@neilbuttery.bsky.social · 6mo ago

This #BritishPieWeek why not go all out and make a Yorkshire Christmas Pye. I know it's not the festive period, but why wait? Perfect if you have a couple of hundred round for tea tonight... neilcooksgrigson.com/2021/12/18/4...

Accidentally saw a review of High Street on Audible (I narrated it). Reviewer described me as 'like @lucyworsley.bsky.social on speed' but like it was a bad thing??? Considering adding it as a cover blurb.

A Friday night pic of a glass of wine, a cat called shrimp. Oh, and the brand new paperback edition of the Kitchen Cabinet book, a fabulous piece of work by @dranniegray with a foreword by me. Its publication took us a little by surprise because the hardback came out in 2021.

This is lovely to read - exactly what I wanted to accomplish with the format.

Helen Brooks@hbrooks.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Enjoyed this - fascinating and entertaining. It was like having a time-travelling tour guide, walking you along High Streets through time. Revealing how shops and shopping have changed and giving an insight into that aspect of my ancestors' lives #familyhistory @dranniegray.bsky.social

Apparently The Kitchen Cabinet #BBCTKC official compendium (which I wrote in 2021 and very much enjoyed) is out in paperback this year. Double woop from me as a) it's jolly good fun and b) means I continue an unbroken run of something releasing every year since, um, a WHILE. Buy from real shops etc.

A quick head's up for my monthly subscribers...The Secret British Food History Podcast has loads of new material: uncut interviews from my Burns Night specials (+ a bonus whisky tasting) AND the season 8 Easter Eggs featuring good folk such as: Jp McMahon, @dranniegray.bsky.social & Ivan Day

Another day, another few hours spent fulminating against the @britishlibrary.bsky.social 's STUPID continued insistence on accepting ebooks in lieu of actual books when a) you can't access them due to the cyber attack - STILL; and b) the system they used was always shite anyway.

Remarkably regressive (and frankly appaling - not to memtion idiotic) recruitment policies from @trinityhallcamb.bsky.social here.

Dr Ian McCormick@wokestudies.bsky.social · 7mo ago

"The evidence is clear: when talented students who have faced greater barriers gain access to elite universities, they flourish precisely because opportunity, not ability, was the binding constraint." Prof Lee Elliot Major, University of Exeter #highered #edchat www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Hard agree:

Alex von Tunzelmann@alexvont.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Reposted this yesterday but I’m doing it again because I feel so strongly. Video is much harder on women, who are expected to conform to much higher grooming standards, and also really on anyone who doesn’t look like a conventional white man, who can expect more nastiness bsky.app/profile/youn...

Being able to sneak in and watch (and later consume the results of) the HCP kitchens christmas events remains one of the high points of my costumed days. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Richard Fitch@tudorcook.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Today...carp on the menu.

I reinterpreted the 1950s clown cake.

Am overjoyed to finally share that @historicalhippo.bsky.social & I have been working with The Food Museum in Stowmarket on a new series of videos. Perfect for anyone reeling from the imminent demise of Mrs Crocombe. youtu.be/PNBu-9xkkow?...

The Food Museum Presents... Mrs Wilding - Christmas Cake

YouTube video by Food Museum

youtu.be